Actor Jackie Chan expressed a desire to join the Chinese Communist Party in comments last week at a China Film Association conference.
“Abroad they often say, ‘proud to be Chinese.’ I’m very lucky to be a Chinese person, but I also am very jealous that you all are Party members. I just think the Chinese Communist Party is really so magnificent,” Chan said in remarks translated by Variety. “What the Party says, what it promises, it doesn’t need 100 years to accomplish — it will definitely accomplish it in just a few decades. I want to be a Party member!”
Chan is from Hong Kong but has long been a backer of the CCP, serving in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Some Hong Kong residents criticized Chan in 2019 for expressing support for China amid a crackdown on protesters in the formerly autonomous territory.4
“I feel pride in being Chinese wherever I go, and the Five-starred Red Flag’ is respected everywhere around the world,” Chan said at the time. “Hong Kong and China are my birthplaces and my home. China is my country, I love my country, I love my home. I hope that Hong Kong can return to peace soon.”
Chan has starred in over 150 movies in China and the U.S., many of them slapstick action comedies including Rush Hour.
China has moved to assert more control over Hong Kong other the past year, and former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo informed Congress in May 2020 that the territory could no longer be considered “autonomous.”
Chan is just the latest celebrity actor to express admiration for China. In May, John Cena issued a groveling apology in Mandarin for referring to Taiwan as a country.